Europe 2025

Mileage today : 364 miles Total mileage. : 478 miles It rained most of the night at the Toads rally so come the morning the tent was soaked. I tried to leave early but by the time I had packed up and said good bye to people it was 0930hrs before I left. The M25 was congested and it was raining, which didn't help. The rain continued all the way to Folkestone and the Eurotunnel train to France. Ride up to check in, then to British passport control 🛂, then to the French passport control, then onto the train.  The last compartment of the train is kept for motorcycles but there was only 3 of us on it. You ride on, park the bike sideways, put it on its side stand, leave it in gear and hope it doesn't fall over. No seats, you just stand around. There is a toilet ever couple of carriages. The carriages are getting a bit tatty now; loose floor plates you have to ride over, bits of metal floor clamps sticking up a bit higher than they should. You have to take your time ridin...

Mileage today : 144 miles Total mileage:  144 miles The Toads is always a good rally. Friendly, loud and hopefully dry and sunny. In recent years the pubs camping field has been flooded out and the site is getting more floods during the years than it used to do; global warming?..who knows. The motorways were busy but moving. With one petrol stop on the M5 to give me enough petrol for the 1st fill up on Sunday, I covered the 114 mile in just over 2.5hrs. I arrived on the field just as it started to rain 🥴. Fortunately it was only light and short lived. Others had not been so lucky with the ride. It had taken Rob 5hrs to negotiate around London with constant, heavy rain and Alan hadn't anything better coming from the south east of the country. It wasnt long before more bikes turned up and the field became a hive of activity. Somebody sneaked over to the bike while I wasn't looking and left me a present for my collection 🤣 Phone signal was pr...

 Off to Europe on the motorbike.....just over 2 weeks, mostly camping visiting friends old and new. The trip should cover about 2000 miles in total but there is always a good chance of getting lost at least once on trips like these 🤣